Listen Mama

M.S.P. Williams

Jun 2021 · Souls Take Flight · Narrated by JD Jackson

About this audiobook

Finalist for Best Audiobook Memoir --2022 Audie Awards

Finalist for Best Memoir --2022 BookLife/Publishers Weekly Selfies US Book Award

Finalist for Best Memoir --2022 Eric Hoffer Award

Finalist for Best African American Literary Nonfiction --2022 Indie Book Awards

"As dramatic as it is heartbreaking." --Kirkus Reviews

"Warmly likable man doing his utmost to struggle through more tragedy and bad luck than any human being should..." -- BookLife Review

Through a series of letters at times heart-breaking, poetic, and unexpectedly humorous, come explore this true teen and young adult journey of a lost soul searching for the love of his mentally ill mother. While facing seemingly insurmountable odds, Manny ultimately becomes her caretaker and guardian while also parenting his four younger siblings in 1990’s Houston, Texas.

Witness his transformation in this coming-of-age story of a forgotten and disfigured black child, born into spirit-crushing poverty, and thrust into adult life all too soon. Manny’s teen years are spent battling the silent and treacherous enemy of mental illness in his mother's erratic and terrifying behavior. Years of bullying and abuse finally take their toll, and Manny soon finds himself at war with his own demons of depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts as he struggles to find his place in the world, and the true meaning of unconditional love.

Experience this inspirational story of loss, faith, love, and redemption that is guaranteed to bring forth both tears and laughter, heartache and happiness, as it captures your imagination, ignites your soul, and soon has you racing from page to page, breathlessly waiting to discover what happens next...

Ratings and reviews

An intimate soulful look at a young man coming of age in undesirable circumstances. From his disfigurement and surgeries to correct it to his challenges living in a dysfunctional home. His honest and heartfelt letters to him mother in an institution from Mental Illness are so honest and so sad. A young man yearning for his mother, for his life and for things to be different, to be normal. I can sense his frustration with the situation, his hurt from rejections and his love for his mother all at the same time. Mental confusion and those heart breaking letters to his mother. It was sad watching Manny suffer from depression and attempted suicide and finally coming to grips with life. He had a hard row to how and the cards were stacked against him from the beginning. This was definitely a story that pulls at the heart strings. I am glad I listened to the audio book and Manny's story. The narration was done remarkably well and the story was sad with a bit of humor and love mixed in together. I think that it was very well written. Thanks to M.S.P. Williams for sharing his story and doing a wonderful job of narrating it, to Souls Take Flight for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.